The Perils of Lorindar
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: -13 in 'Twilight Storm'- While investigating a rift in the vortex, the Doctor and Bella Swan are drawn into a very unique world, where they must join forces with some unexpected new allies to face a nightmare from the Doctor's past.
1. The Rift

Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who", "Twilight", or the "Princesses" series; you know the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: The first part of a three-way crossover that I hope will meet with the approval of my readers, as the Tenth Doctor and Bella Swan- brought together in my series 'The Twilight Storm'- find themselves in a new world with new allies who are strangely familiar to both, facing an old and deadly enemy of the Doctor's…

The Perils of Lorindar

"You see, Bella," the Doctor said, looking at me in a rare example of his more casual 'lecture mode', when we started talking about something that wasn't related to the current threat, still enjoying our time off after the emotional trauma of the Doctor nearly being erased from history, "the key thing to remember when dealing with history is that people will always edit out certain details when writing about what happened."

"And it's sometimes hard to know whether what they edited out was important?" I asked, smiling thoughtfully as I contemplated this interesting news.

"Exactly," the Doctor said, nodding in approval at me. "For example, a few centuries back I went back to the Russian Revolution and met up with Rasputin-"

"_Rasputin_?" I said, my mind suddenly flashing back to that animated _Anastasia _movie I'd seen a few years ago. "You mean… that mad monk who helped kill the Russian royal family?"

"My point exactly," the Doctor said, smiling in confirmation at me. "History's _portrayed_ him as a man who used his hypnotic influence to control the Romanovs, but actually he only had that kind of power in the family because he'd treated the youngest son for an illness and they couldn't admit what was wrong with the boy; he made himself such a prominent person to draw attention away from the more awkward Alexandra, and he tended to be so direct when talking to other people because he'd taken a bit of a knock as a child and it left him needing to really focus when having a conversation."

"Oh," I said, suddenly feeling rather depressed about how quick I'd been to judge the man, despite the fact that I'd known virtually nothing about Rasputin before now apart from that time I'd watched the cartoon movie _Anastasia_. "So… he really wasn't that bad?"

"He spent some time talking with my current companion and all he did was ask her about some of the places she'd been because of his own love for travelling," the Doctor said, smiling at me before his expression became more sullen, clearly recalling a painful memory. "Of course, the disadvantage with being in that kind of situation is that you have to let the bad things happen even when they don't deserve it; the consequences of undoing a major event like Rasputin's death are just… well, they're complicated."

"They are?" I said curiously.

"I'm not saying that the Revolution itself was a good thing, but-" the Doctor began, only to be interrupted when alarms suddenly blared from the TARDIS console, prompting the Doctor to get to his feet and dash to examine the console while I followed him.

"What is it?" I asked, taking up position near him as the Doctor urgently studied the readings provided by his ship; evidently our self-declared vacation was at an end.

"There's some kind of rift in the fabric of the universe…" the Doctor said, staring at the screen in confusion for a moment before his eyes widened. "Oh, _that's _not good…"

"What's not good?" I asked. "The rift?"

As I said the word, my mind was flashing back to the last rift we'd encountered, and what we'd dealt with then; the Daleks had been bad enough, but I sometimes wondered how the Doctor _really _felt about the fact that he'd been back in a time before the Time War and couldn't do anything about it…

"Oh, the rift could be coped with- there's a few rifts scattered around the universe that can be anything from an annoyance to a threat to the local populace but can be left alone so long as someone knows they're there and how to cope with the consequences of their presence-; it's what's coming _through _the rift that worries me," the Doctor said, looking grimly at me.

"Coming through it?" I repeated, before my eyes widened at the possible implications. "Are you saying… something's trying to get through from the other side? That something's invading us?"

"Possibly; the readings indicate a strong presence on the other side of the barrier that's trying to enter this realm, but the rift isn't strong enough to allow it through… whatever it is," the Doctor said, looking grimly at the screen. "I could be over-reacting and it's all just an accident on the other end, of course, but since we can't know _what's _coming through that rift or even where it's from, the possibilities aren't encouraging; even if our potential intruder's not intentionally dangerous, it could be that it's just not equipped to cope in this universe because the laws of physics where it comes from are too different…"

Turning his attention to a nearby console, he ran a series of quick searches, tapping various buttons and flicking switches, before turning his attention back to the screen, nodding in approval at the results. "Well, from what I can pick up right now, the environment on the other side isn't _immediately _dangerous, so just give me a moment to ensure the remote link's strong enough…"

"Excuse me?" I said, looking anxiously at the Doctor. "What are you talking about?"

"If we're going to find what's trying to come through, our best chance is to beat it at its own game and find out what we're dealing with while it's still on its own turf rather than on ours," the Doctor said, his expression grim as he moved to another console and began to make further adjustments to the controls. "It's risky, but if we confront it in an environment where our attacker knows the rules and isn't expecting an assaultwe might be able to turn the tables on it; they wouldn't know what _we _could do to it there, after all."

"I thought you said we couldn't go through-" I began.

"The thing on the _other side _can't get through the rift yet or it would have done it already, but that's just because it doesn't have our resources; all _we _need to do to go through is set the TARDIS and brace ourselves," the Doctor clarified, smiling at me. "The TARDIS surpasses most other methods of travel through time and space, so it can go where other things would at least have more trouble; whatever's trying to get through from the other side needs to create certain conditions that the TARDIS can work out automatically-"

Further explanation was cut off as the TARDIS shook around us, leaving me to desperately grab on to one of the pillars as the Doctor held on to the console, staring at the screen in front of him as he fought for control, before the ship stopped with a shuddering impact, leaving me sprawling on the floor as I looked up at the Doctor as he lay against the console, which had suddenly become far darker than I was used to seeing it, only a few lights active compared to the usual illumination.

"Well," the Doctor said, looking at me with a smile that seemed more forced than normal after taking a moment to collect himself, "slight exaggeration of how automatic that was going to be- something about our destination the TARDIS doesn't quite like-, but we're there."

"And… where are we?" I asked, trying not to think too much about the darkness around us.

"The world that was the source of that attack," the Doctor said, his expression unusually grim as he looked at his darkened ship. "The TARDIS has gone into reserve power to maintain its resources; we're close enough to the rift that she can still draw on power from our universe, but she can't do anything more than what she's done already."

"We're… on a world?" I repeated, looking at the Doctor in confusion; we'd been to hostile planets before now, but something about the Doctor's word choice suggested that it was more complicated than that even without the TARDIS's current condition (I was trying not to think about that; the idea of the TARDIS breaking down wasn't something I wanted to face unless I had to). "Do you mean… planet?"

"Dimension, actually," the Doctor said.

"Pardon?" I said, looking at him in confusion at his unusual clarification.

"Well, I've explained the possibility of alternate realities to you by now, right?" the Doctor asked, looking curiously at me.

"You mean… the idea of worlds where something happened differently compared to how it turned out here?" I asked uncertainly; he'd mentioned alternate realities to me shortly after our experience on Arkheon, but I'd tried not to think too much about it because the possibility of a world where Edward hadn't gotten tired of me inspired various emotions that I wasn't sure about yet.

"Bingo," the Doctor said, nodding at me with a smile before he continued. "Anyway, other dimensions aren't the same; alternate realities are worlds virtually identical to the one we know with only some historical differences changed- people lived when they died or died when they lived, people married other people and had new children who made crucial discoveries earlier, that kind of thing-, but other dimensions are worlds that can operate on a completely different set of physical laws to what we know and may have virtually nothing in common with our world. I haven't gone to many of them, but I've encountered beings from those worlds more than once; the original vampires I told you about are an obvious example, but I learned a while back that one of my oldest opponents gains his powers because he comes from another dimension, and I've encountered at least two rifts to two different worlds that manifested themselves as the afterlife but were really worlds shaped by the perceptions of others."

"Oh," I said, suppressing my immediate question- if those worlds have _actually _been the afterlife the Doctor would have said so- and turning my attention to another matter. "And… is this dimension like that?"

"Not entirely," the Doctor said, looking thoughtfully at the monitors. "As I said earlier, from what I can see, we haven't completely lost contact with 'our' universe, and we're dealing with a more permeable barrier than I normally encounter; I think we might be dealing with a Gardner Wall effect here…"

"A what?" I asked.

"You'll probably see when we step outside," the Doctor said, smiling briefly at me before he indicated the door. "On that topic, shall we?"

"What?" I said, looking at him in surprise. "You're saying we just… go outside?"

"Well, I'm fairly sure we're not in the exact location where that attack I detected was coming from, and everything I've seen suggests that this isn't dangerous to us, so taking a look outside should be safe enough," the Doctor said with a nonchalant smile. "So, shall we?"

"Uh… sure," I said, out of a lack of anything else to say; he seemed unusually casual after his earlier panic about the possibility of what we might find ourselves up against in this world, but he still seemed to be acting fairly normally, and his explanation for his actions made sense, so I wasn't going to start worrying just yet.

"Good," the Doctor said, as he walked up to the TARDIS door and opened it. "In that case, here we go!"

Looking at our immediate surroundings as I walked out of the TARDIS, I was immediately amazed at the scale of it. We were standing in the courtyard of a vast white palace, with towers and walls all around us, the sound of the sea audible from one side and the buildings themselves in virtually pristine condition. A few people were walking through the courtyard nearby, but if any of them had noticed the TARDIS they weren't commenting on it. A large gate at one end revealed glimpses of an old-fashioned-looking town, while the general attire of the locals put me in mind of the kind of clothing I'd seen in Disney movies or read about in fairy tales as a child, velvet and leather coming together to create various appearances ranging from elaborate robes to plainer attire (Although even those in the casual attire seemed to be fairly clean; if I'd seen this thing in history books I would have expected a smell, but everything seemed fairly clean).

"Wow…" I said, lost for words at the scale of what was around us.

"Quite," the Doctor said, smiling as he came outside to join me. "Very nice."

"Any ideas where we are?" I asked, looking curiously at him.

"Not immediately," the Doctor said, thoughtfully studying our surroundings as he walked away from the TARDIS. "There's something here, but like I said earlier, I'm also fairly sure that we haven't reached the exact source of that attack; this must just be-"

The Doctor was suddenly cut short when a knife appeared at his throat, followed by a woman walking out from behind the TARDIS with a cold expression on her face as she looked at us. She had dark skin and was dressed in dark red trousers and a sleeveless top that put me in mind of a corset, with at least three daggers strapped to her legs as well as the blade she was aiming at the Doctor, along with a silver bracelet around her right wrist.

"Who are you?" she said, glaring at the Doctor even as she pulled out another knife and aimed it in my approximate direction; judging by the way she held it, I had little doubt that she was capable of using it, but she had apparently identified the Doctor as the most likely 'threat'.

"Talia," another voice said from behind me, with a tone that suggested long experience with this situation, "didn't Beatrice tell you these two weren't dangerous?"

"They appeared _inside _the castle, Princess," the woman who was apparently Talia said, looking at the speaker as she walked over to join the first woman. The latest arrival was a blonde woman in a white dress with what looked like a glass sword hanging at her waist. "I don't think I need to remind you of the power you need to do something like that if you're not allowed?"

"We don't even know where we _are _right now; how can we be a threat?" I asked, turning to look at the speaker while trying to work out what was going on; how could these people live in what seemed to be a castle and not immediately start panicking about the impossibility of a box appearing out of thin air?

"Actually, we were just tracking a… well, something unusual, anyway… and we stopped off here to get a better idea of what it might be and where to go," the Doctor said, smiling brightly at the two women despite the knife still being held uncomfortably close to his throat. "I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this is my friend Bella; where are we?"

"'Where are we'?" the blonde princess repeated, looking at the Doctor in surprise. "You don't know where you _are_?"

"Disadvantage of travelling the way we do; it happens," the Doctor said with a casual shrug. "Can you tell me?"

"You're in Lorindar," the dark-skinned woman said, blade still at the Doctor's throat even as she seemed to be relaxing slightly. "Whiteshore Palace, to be exact."

"Really?" the Doctor said, looking up at the building with a new smile. "Whiteshore Palace… lovely name for a place, really."

"Thanks," a third voice said, prompting me to turn and look at another woman, this one a few years older than the other two, with streaks of grey in her long dark hair and faint lines around her red lips, dressed in a very tight-fitting bodice and wearing an elaborate mirrored choker around her neck in the shape of a snowflake. "It's definitely one of the nicer places where I've ever lived myself."

"Snow…" the dark-skinned woman said, looking at the older woman in frustration.

"Snow?" I repeated, looking at the third woman in confusion, even as the possible implications came to me; a beautiful woman, pale skin, dark hair that was only further emphasised by the white streaks at the front, bright red lips…

It would have been a ridiculous thought to have under normal circumstances, but after dating a vampire, confronting a race of alien mutants, being trapped in a second by a virtual god, finding myself in an alternate reality where my friend and mentor had been erased from history, and all the alien planets I'd seen in the last few months, I'd long ago told myself to believe everything to be on the safe side.

"Are you…" I began, momentarily uncertain if I could finish what I was about to say without feeling stupid, before I took a deep breath and spat it out; the similarities wouldn't leave me alone until I asked the question. "Are you Snow White?"

"That's me," the woman said, smiling at me.

I blinked at the absolute sincerity of the statement; I had been expecting some kind of defensive counter-argument, or maybe confusion about who I was talking about, but that statement had been made in such simple sincerity it couldn't be anything but the truth.

"You're… you're serious?" I said as I looked at her. "You're… you're really _Snow White_?"

"Snow…" the dark-skinned woman said, looking at Snow in frustration.

"What?" Snow said with a smile. "Bea didn't think they were dangerous, and if she was wrong, we're not exactly going to find it hard to stop them in this position; where's the harm in telling them who we are?"

"Thanks," the Doctor said, grinning at the woman in question before turning his attention to the dark-skinned woman with the knives, squinting at her for a moment before he smiled in understanding. "So, if _she's_ Snow White, that would make _you_… Sleeping Beauty, am I right?"

"How do you know that?" the woman said, glaring at the Doctor as she raised her blades again, aiming them warningly at his face.

"Your temporal presence is about a century older than your overall quantum state and consciousness; if she's Snow White, Sleeping Beauty's the obvious choice for your identity, considering the century you spent asleep in most sources," the Doctor said with a shrug, as though temporal presences were something everyone could see.

"So…" I said, looking thoughtfully at the blonde, feeling stupid for even thinking what I was about to say, "if they're Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, would that make you… I mean, the glass makes me think of… Cinderella?"

"Yes," the blonde said, with a resigned tone that suggested she was used to that name. "That's the name I seem to have been given in the kingdom's stories, anyway; I'm fine with Danielle."

"Danielle," I said, nodding awkwardly out of a lack of anything else to do that wouldn't leave me looking or feeling like an idiot. "Right… sorry…"

"What did you mean by all that stuff about my… temporal presence?" Talia asked, glaring at the Doctor once more.

"Oh, it's one of the little bonuses I receive thanks to my extra senses; I don't use it often, but considering the circumstances, I thought it was appropriate to check," the Doctor explained, grinning casually at Talia before looking at the blonde who was apparently Cinderella. "Anyway, Princess Danielle, you mentioned a 'Beatrice' earlier; who is she?"

"My mother-in-law," Danielle said, smiling slightly at the Doctor as she indicated the castle behind us. "And she's been waiting to meet you for a while, so if you could follow us?"

"Uh…" I said, stuck for anything else to say in this situation, even as the Doctor grinned and indicated to Danielle that she could lead the way, leaving me stuck with no other choice but to follow him as I stared at our surroundings in confusion.

I'd grown used to experiencing weird things in my life, but finding myself being confronted by Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White was still a virtually unprecedent level of weird even by my standards…

* * *

AN 2: To those who don't know, the other world that the Doctor and Bella have just arrived in is the world of Jim C. Hines' 'Princesses' series (And how it can exist in the Doctor's world _will _be explained soon); putting a darker spin on the fairy tales we're familiar with, the series focuses on protagonists Princess Danielle Whiteshore (AKA Cinderella, possessing the ability to talk to animals and an unbreakable glass sword forged by her mother's spirit that can cut anything but Danielle's own flesh), Talia Malak-el-Dahshat (AKA Sleeping Beauty, possessing formidable martial arts skills due to the gift of grace she received from the fairies at her christening, forced to flee her kingdom when she awoke after giving birth to her twin sons and murdered her rapist as he was now the 'official' king, now apparently no longer requiring sleep after her century of doing nothing but), and Ermillina Curtana (AKA Snow White, a sorceress who was forced to flee her kingdom after killing her mother, able to weave various spells using her mirrors as a focus when away from her mother's original magic mirror; the role of the dwarves in this series will be explained later).

As for the force that the Doctor detected through the rift…

Well, that will be revealed later.


	2. The True History of Princesses

Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who", "Twilight", or the "Princesses" series; you know the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: Background details provided here for those who haven't read Hines' work- I naturally assume you're aware of the essential details of all three princesses' 'public' tales- as well as information about how Lorindar and the rest of this world fit into the Doctor's universe; hope you like the result

The Perils of Lorindar

As we were shown into the throne room, I tried to keep my breathing under control while staying as close to the Doctor as I could; thinking of the Doctor as a Time Lord was one thing, but the idea that I was in the same building as three classic characters from stories I'd heard as a child left me torn between screaming like a dizzy fangirl and running away in shock and confusion.

Adapting to aliens being real was one thing, but the thought that I was in a realm where _fairy tales _were _real_…

As we came to a halt in front of a raised marble dias, I realised that we had apparently reached our destination, prompting me to look up and see who we'd come here to see. There were two thrones at the top of the dias, made of rich oak and inlaid with ivory and gold; one was carved to resemble what I thought was a griffin, while the other looked like a swan, and had a woman sitting in it; I guessed that she was the queen while the king was away somewhere. The woman struck me as being painfully thin in a manner I couldn't help but associate with someone suffering from terminal cancer, wearing a fur-lined cloak despite the warm weather and holding on to a stout oak staff even as she sat before us. Her eyes gleamed with an inner strength that put me in mind of the Doctor, but otherwise her entire body gave the impression that a strong breeze would have knocked her down.

"So," she said, looking at my friend with a slight smile, "you are the one I've been dreaming about?"

"Should I be flattered or concerned?" the Doctor replied, smiling politely at the woman.

"My insight has allowed me to bring these three together; you may consider that as you will," the woman replied, indicating the three women behind us with a smile before she focused her gaze on my friend. "What is your name?"

"I am the Doctor, your Majesty," the Doctor replied, nodding politely at her before indicating me. "And this is my friend, Bella Swan."

"And I am Queen Beatrice of Lorindar," the woman replied, smiling at him before she looked at the Doctor with a firmer expression. "Now then, if introductions are out of the way, can I ask who you are and what you are doing here?"

"You may," the Doctor said, looking solemnly at the queen. "Your Majesty, there is something taking place that could be dangerous to your world and the world that Bella and I come from; I became aware of it in my travels and have come to investigate."

"Indeed?" Beatrice said, looking curiously at the Doctor. "And… what are you, that prompts you to make this offer?"

"And who's she to you?" Snow- I was in the same room as _Snow White_- asked, indicating me with an inquiring hand.

"I am… a traveller, your Majesty; I travel wherever I wish to, observing the many wonders that this world has to offer, and assist those I encounter when circumstances permit me to do so," the Doctor said, unusually formal despite his usual casual manner. "Bella Swan is a human, but she is my friend and companion, travelling with me to broaden her view of the world and provide her with new experiences; we met when she needed some time away from home and I needed a friend-"

"You're his friend?" Talia- _Sleeping Beauty_- said, holding up a hand to halt the Doctor as she looked at me with a very pointed stare, as though wanting to test something.

"Uh… yes?" I said, nodding awkwardly at the other woman, wondering what had prompted that kind of response. "_Just _his friend; we're not… _together _or anything like that."

"You haven't promised him anything in return for going along with him, or agreed to be with him because of some kind of payment?" the armed princess asked, an edge to her tone that I didn't understand.

"No…" I said, aware that my confusion was showing but completely lost as to what this woman was talking about; there was definitely something personal in these questions, but I had no idea what might have prompted them in the first place…

"Seriously, Talia, _relax_," Snow said, looking at the other woman with a smile. "Do you really think I wouldn't have noticed if there was some kind of deal going on here?"

"Deal?" the Doctor repeated, looking at her curiously.

"Fairy deals," Snow said with a smile. "It's not an exact science, but I've been working on picking up on some details if I'm actually trying; considering the circumstances of your arrival, I wanted to make sure I knew what we were dealing with."

"Fairies make deals?" I said in surprise.

"You don't exactly get something for nothing," Talia said, looking pointedly at me. "Or did you think that I got all those gifts at my christening because they were feeling generous?"

"Uh…" I said, my mind quickly going over what I remembered of _Sleeping Beauty _from the various adaptations I'd heard over the years; discounting the specific names from the Disney version, I was fairly sure that I remembered the story's curse happening when various fairies came to the princess's christening to bless her with various gifts, only for one fairy to curse her with dying when she pricked her finger when she was sixteen…

"It all seemed generous at first, but the last fairy perverted the curse for her own ends; you don't want to know the details," Talia said grimly, looking at me in a manner that left me convinced that asking for more details wouldn't be a good idea; the stare she was giving me left me strongly reminded of Rosalie when the topic of her past came up.

"Right then; we won't ask for them," the Doctor said, looking reassuringly at Talia with a sympathetic smile as though she wasn't delivering a chilling glare, before his expression became more apologetic. "Still… I take it we can assume that the 'happily-ever-after' part of your story didn't really happen?"

"Let's just say that my wake-up call wasn't the simple kiss the stories say and leave it at that," Talia said grimly. "I was able to hone most of the gifts the fairies gave me to improve my ability to defend myself, and I don't sleep any more, but considering that my 'saviour' was the descendant of the man who ordered my family killed, you can understand why I didn't want to stay with him."

With that said, she turned and walked out of the throne room, leaving the Doctor and I to exchange awkward glances at having brought up what was clearly an awkward topic.

"Trust me, you really don't want to know what else the fairies had planned for her kingdom," Snow said, looking warningly at me as Talia left. "Danielle and I are probably her closest friends, and even _we _wouldn't know about it if we hadn't been there when she learned the truth."

"The curse was part of an attempted coup?" the Doctor asked.

"…Among other things," Snow said after a moment's pause, nodding at my friend before she gave him a slight smile. "You're good, aren't you?"

"I've seen a lot over the course of my travels, Snow; if I wasn't quick at picking up minor details to work out the bigger picture, I wouldn't be here today," the Doctor explained, before he looked at the remaining two princesses with a smile. "So, since it sounds like Talia had to leave her kingdom for various reasons of political intrigue, and Danielle appears to be the resident princess, would you care to tell us how _you_ ended up here?"

"I was kicked out of my kingdom for killing my mother," Snow clarified.

"You were?" I repeated, looking at her in surprise (I decided not to ask if the queen had been her actual mother or her stepmother; that was a relatively minor detail that could have easily been 'edited' at some point to make her story more child-friendly). "But… if she was evil-"

"Her death just opened the doors for the more power-hungry members of the family to try and take the throne," Snow explained, shaking her head in frustration at the memory. "Queen Bea helped ensure that my cousin Lawrence took the throne- he was the least bloodthirsty of the alternatives- but they had to get me out afterwards; people needed a scapegoat for all the violence, and I _had _killed the previous queen."

"Oh," I said, suddenly feeling the inadequacy of any attempt I might make to apologise for bringing up a topic like that.

"Don't worry about it; you asked, so I decided to answer," Snow said, smiling reassuringly at me. "After all, Bea vouches for you."

"And that's enough?" the Doctor asked, looking at the queen curiously. "I mean no disrespect, your Majesty, but… well…"

"I've brought these three women together because I felt that they would need each other, and so far they have saved us all from some significant potential threats," the Queen said, smiling understandingly at my friend. "They trust me because I have done all that I can to aid them so far, and I trust them because they have proven themselves worthy of that trust; if we can trust each other based on my dreams, I'm fairly sure that we can trust you both on the same evidence."

"Uh… thanks," I said, feeling uncomfortable being grouped with the Doctor like that; I'd seen some interesting things in my time with him, but I wasn't completely comfortable with people treating me as though I was the Doctor's _equal_...

"As long as we're discussing our stories, what's yours like?" the Doctor asked, looking curiously at Danielle (_Cinderella_!).

"Most of the story's an exaggeration; I… changed in the garden, sneaked over to the ball, and left before midnight to ensure that my step-family didn't get back to an empty house," Danielle clarified.

"So… no turning mice into horses or creating coaches out of pumpkins?" I asked, glad to see that Danielle just seemed embarrassed rather than angry when discussing her story.

"They're saying that now?" Danielle asked, looking at me in surprise.

"Just… where I come from," I said, shrugging slightly even as I gave her a slight smile; at least this story sounded less tragic than the other two. "Although I was wondering… why did your prince need to test you with the slippers?"

"His eyesight isn't very good," Danielle explained, smiling back at me with a slightly embarrassed air about her. "He's fine in daylight, but at night, even illuminated by candlelight…"

"Ah," I said, nodding in understanding.

"In any case," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together and turning back to the thrones, "now that those details are cleared up, Your Majesty, I can answer the second part of your question; my travels brought me within a short distance of your lovely kingdom, and we… became aware that there were things happening here that shouldn't be."

"'Things'?" the queen repeated, looking at my friend with a slight smile. "And what 'things' would these be?"

"I'm… still working on that, actually; I know they're happening in this area, but what I sensed might be here could have any number of side-effects I'm not aware of yet," the Doctor said, looking apologetically at the queen for a moment before he smiled again, as though his lack of an immediate explanation was just a minor inconvenience. "Still, the point is, if I was aware of something odd happening here, and you were aware that Bella and I were coming here, maybe you were aware of the first thing too?"

"Aside from my initial visions of you, I suppose?" Beatrice said, smiling slightly at the Doctor before she sighed and sat back in her chair. "Well… I will admit, something came to me, but the visions are always relatively vague; I was more focused on the certainty of your arrival than the question of what brought you here…"

She looked over at Snow. "I don't suppose you've heard anything I didn't?"

"Well… I don't remember hearing about anything significant recently, but I have a few people I could get in touch with, and I can always check the mirror…" Snow said, looking uncertainly between the queen and the Doctor.

"The mirror?" I repeated, looking sharply at Snow, struck by the obvious implications of Snow White talking about a mirror. "As in, your mother's mirror? 'Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all' and all that?"

"Of course," Snow replied. "It's a useful means of boosting my magic; after I took it away with me, why shouldn't I use it?"

I was suddenly struck by the memory of that bit in _Harry Potter _about not trusting anything if you couldn't see where it thought, but I just as swiftly told myself not to think about that; talking about the rules of magic based on something I'd read in a book wasn't exactly going to get me anywhere.

"If you could just take a look around, I'd appreciate it," the Doctor said, smiling over at Snow. "I can't be sure how it would manifest here, but whatever Bella and I are looking for would be exceptionally powerful and definitely not part of the natural order; news of anything unusual that's been happening here would give me something to work with, if nothing else."

"Do you often dive in without knowing what you're looking for?" Snow asked, even as she returned the Doctor's smile with one of her own.

"Sometimes you don't have time to plan ahead," the Doctor replied, shrugging casually back at Snow before looking over at Beatrice and Danielle. "In the meantime, if you want to keep an eye on my box, could Bell and I have a couple of rooms?"

"So eager to invite yourself to stay, Doctor?" the queen asked in a slightly teasing manner.

"Eager to assure you that you have nothing to fear from us, your Majesty," the Doctor replied. "The box we arrived in serves as our means of transport; if you have control of that, we can't leave you, and you can feel free to allocate us any rooms you wish."

"Separate rooms if you can, please," I added, wanting to ensure that there was no confusion about our relationship; it was a minor detail, but I just felt that it was an important one.

"We have a pair of adjoining rooms in my tower," Danielle said, looking at us both with a smile. "They're a bit sparse, but they have the essentials in terms of furniture; will that do?"

"Perfect," the Doctor said, returning her smile with one of his own. "Just somewhere where we won't be underfoot and maybe with something to read while we wait for Snow to finish should be fine; thank you."

"Just be sure to avoid Talia if you see her," Snow added, smiling slightly at the Doctor as she turned to leave. "She tends to get worked-up when she's faced with the possibility of imminent danger and there's nothing for her to hit; she wouldn't attack without cause, but it's best to give her time to cool down."

I didn't need to have the Doctor's intellect to realise that the awkward questions we'd asked earlier wouldn't help us strike up a casual conversation with Talia; I still wasn't clear on how the Doctor had come to the conclusion that a coup was involved, but Talia definitely didn't want to talk about that issue any more than she had to…

* * *

Less than an hour later, after the Doctor and I had been shown to our current rooms- they each only consisted of a bed, a desk, an empty wardrobe and a full bookcase, but considering that nobody could have known who we were they'd managed rather well- I had finished testing my bed and gone through to find the Doctor studying one of the books as he casually sat at his desk.

"Oh, hello," he said, grinning up at me as though this whole experience was just another day at the metaphorical office (Not that I could imagine the Doctor ever working in a real _office_). "Just been reading up on the history of this place-"

"Before we get to that, can you just… clear a couple of things up for me first?" I asked, looking uncertainly at the Doctor; faced with the sheer impossibility of the world we'd just found ourselves in, I'd prefer to tackle the potentially smaller question first. "Firstly, why did you think that what happened to… Talia… was part of a coup?"

"Well, when you think about it, when an entire royal household nods off for a hundred years or so, _someone's _got to take over during that time, and it probably won't be in the most diplomatic manner," the Doctor said, smiling promptingly at me. "I mean, I'm all for people taking charge of themselves, but you don't go from kings to democracy like that; it's a long and complicated process, and Talia's family probably didn't prepare for the transition before everything… happened."

"That's… a good point," I said, suddenly surprised that I hadn't thought of that when I'd heard the story in the past; the Disney version had trimmed down the time between the princess falling asleep and when she was woken up, but I had definitely read other versions where she slept for a century…

"OK, so that's that answered, but that doesn't explain how these… how this whole _place _can be _real_," I said, looking anxiously at the Doctor as I refocused my attention on the main issue; accepting vampires and aliens was one thing, but this was specific characters in a world of magic that didn't seem to fit _anything _I'd experienced with the Doctor so far. "I mean… _Cinderella_, _Snow White _and _Sleeping Beauty _are _real_?"

"Excellent question," the Doctor said, smiling at me in approval. "Under normal circumstances, my initial assumption would be that we're in the Land of Fiction, but that doesn't work-"

"The Land of Fiction?" I interrupted.

"It's a realm outside Time where fictional creations are brought into existence by a Master or Writer- term varies according to preference- who controls everything; I've heard rumours that it was created by some old enemies of mine for entertainment, but if it was they abandoned it long ago and the Land's now only a threat based on who's controlling it," the Doctor explained. "I've visited it a few times- actually encountered Rapunzel the first time I popped by- but like I said, this can't be it; apart from the fact that this world is just another dimension rather than being outside of time altogether, there's too much background detail."

"And that makes it less plausible that we've gone back there?" I asked. "We're in a world of _fairy tales_-!"

"Even if we ignore such background details as that aforementioned coup, let me ask you this; can you recall _any _fairy tale adaptation where they actually named the kingdoms where everything took place?" the Doctor asked.

"Uh… _Beauty and the Beast_?" I asked after a moment's thought.

"Disney version just relocated it to France to make it plausible for a girl to be named some variation of 'Beauty'; that doesn't count, and the original version never specified a specific location," the Doctor said, shaking his head before he continued. "No, like I said, we must be dealing with an example of the Gardner Effect, and this is the realm where the tales were real; ergo, no details have been lost in the retelling, so everything's pretty much accounted for."

"So… we're in another dimension… populated by fairy tale characters… that can use magic because the rules here aren't the same as back home… that my world somehow found out about?" I asked, wishing I could sound more confident even as I knew I was just coming across as completely lost right now; even the part about how magic worked was just a guess based on the Doctor's earlier explanation about how other dimensions differed from ours. "How does that… work?"

"It's part of what we term the Gardner Effect," the Doctor explained, looking thoughtfully at me before he continued. "You see, Bella, some worlds are indirectly linked to each other in a manner that allows other worlds to be aware of the activities of their 'neighbours', but they're sometimes only receiving part of the full picture. Picture reality as a massive jigsaw puzzle, with the various parallel universes and other dimensions as pieces in the puzzle, each one independent but connected to the whole. As a result, some of these worlds sometimes get parts of the whole, without getting the full details; the history of this world has become our fairy tales back on Earth, permeating the wider human subconscious so that everyone has at least _some _awareness of the stories, even if bits and pieces are misinterpreted or lost due to human error or editing decisions, but other worlds with less significant differences have been re-remembered as games or novels or television shows or comic books or even myths…"

He shrugged. "It's complicated to witness, and you never know how much of what's written is the Gardner effect and how much is just peoples' imaginations- although the more popular writers and shows are generally 'real' _somewhere_- but it's rather fascinating to see what stands out after it gets through the barrier versus what actually happened if you can visit the original dimension; it's like our earlier discussion about historical perspective affecting the history books, you know."

"Right…" I said, lost for anything better to say to that revelation.

We were in a world where fairy tales were real- the world that may have actually been the _source _of the fairy tales back on Earth- and somehow even the fairy tales didn't always manage to get a happy ending…

It was nice that things had worked out for Cinderella, but learning what had happened to Sleeping Beauty and Snow White was actually rather depressing; so much for childhood innocence…

Still, we had our immediate mission to focus on, and it wasn't like I didn't already know from experience that happy endings couldn't be guaranteed; the priority now was whatever threat the Doctor had detected was trying to leave here to threaten our world, not brooding about how even characters who were _meant _to have a 'happy-ever-after' couldn't get it.

"In the meantime," the Doctor said, indicating the book in his hands with a smile, "this has some interesting details on the history of Lorindar; shall I fill you in?"

"Why not?" I asked, sitting down on the bed as the Doctor sat back in his chair and began to read the book; it might be childish, but it would be nice to have an excuse not to think too much right now…


	3. The True History of Fairy Tales

Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who", "Twilight", or the "Princesses" series; you know the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: Some background details here regarding Snow and Talia's former kingdoms; hope you find them interesting

AN 2: I'm coming up to the end of this series- as the plan goes, I have three stories planned once this one's over before Bella's journey with the Doctor concludes- but if there's anything anyone wants to see, let me know and I'll see what I can do (Although anything involving Strax or Vastra is out; I'm not confident in my ability to explore their characters in a manner that would make their stories interesting).

The Perils of Lorindar

The next hour or so passed by relatively peacefully, which made a nice change of pace after some of the places I'd visited with the Doctor where we reached our destination and immediately had to start running; rest in the aftermath of a crisis was all well and good, but this was nice as well.

Of course, the fact that I was learning about a history that put a completely new spin on stories I'd heard ever since I was a child made it even more enjoyable; I might have moved on to more modern literature, but you never forgot the classics you grew up with.

According to the history book that the Doctor had discovered in his room, Lorindar maintained a peace treaty with the local fairies that essentially confined them and their magic to the territory known as 'Fairytown'- the name apparently meant something more complicated in the fairy language, so humans called it that for convenience's sake- ever since a war some centuries ago that ended when the human sorcerer Malindar threatened to destroy the fairies' hill that was the apparent source of at least most of their magical power. The precise details of the conflict weren't provided, but apparently the spell that Malindar had cast to end the war had created a large crack in the ground around and between Fairytown that had threatened to destroy the fairy hill, despite the fact that such an attack would have destroyed Lorindar as a whole as well as Fairytown. As it currently stood, both fairies and humans existed in a guarded truce, fairies bound by the treaty to be unable to use their wider magic outside Fairytown without being banished from their people, and expressly forbidden to harm any humans of noble blood, even if they were allowed some leeway in matters of self-defence and could still use some magic without needing the hill.

The Doctor hadn't exactly made his thoughts on that situation clear- considering that we were guests of the human rulers, he probably didn't want to risk appearing judgemental or angry at what they'd done in the past- but I'd been around him for long enough to guess how he felt about this situation. Humans and fairies might be at peace, but it was a guarded peace brought about with the understanding that the humans would have been willing to destroy the fairies rather than live as slaves, rather than both sides accepting that they could accomplish more together.

He had also done some background reading on some of the other countries in this world, such as the desert-kingdom of Arathea, which had apparently been ruled by Talia's family before the fairy curse had put them all to sleep when Talia was sixteen. His initial assessment of the situation in Talia's kingdom had apparently been correct; the fairies had 'offered' their services to rebuild the kingdom after the entire royal family fell asleep and were trapped behind a vast hedge of thorns, but everything the book had to offer all but explicitly stated that the fairies were now basically in charge of the entire kingdom, or at least were in a position to advise most of the ruling figures. The book only briefly discussed what happened after 'Sleeping Beauty' had woken up, but I already knew that I wasn't going to ask for more information; the fact that she was here made it clear that she hadn't just married her prince, but I doubted that Talia would answer any of my questions on that topic, and Snow and Danielle weren't likely to betray their friend's confidence.

By contrast, Snow's former kingdom of Allesandria was a country of ice that had apparently been the 'birthplace' of human magic in this world, with various prominent sorcerers coming from that part of the world and an unparalleled knowledge of human magic, even if the political situation was questionable and their fairies had all been driven off or killed some time ago. The books made all kind of vague references to what Snow's mother had done during her life and how Snow had actually defeated her, but they were fairly clear on the fact that her cousin had inherited her throne, even if it didn't elaborate on what happened to her afterwards.

It was kind of strange, reading about all these things as history and _knowing _that what happened to the people they were talking about wasn't the happy ending the general population were expecting; it reminded me all too keenly of the conversation the Doctor and I had been having earlier about the importance of historical perspective.

It really was the winning side who wrote the history books in the end…

"So… if fairies aren't innocent helpers… I take it that Danielle didn't go to the ball because of her fairy godmother?" I asked, after we'd sat in silence for a few moments.

"With _these_ fairies to deal with?" the Doctor replied, shaking his head grimly. "If any fairy _had _helped Danielle go to the ball, they'd probably have pulled a Rumplestiltskin and demanded her first-born child in exchange."

"So… where would she get the gown?" I asked uncertainly. "I mean, I suppose she could have made it herself like she tried to in the movie, but _glass slippers_…?"

"It was probably her mother," the Doctor replied.

"Her mother?" I repeated in surprise, quickly trying to remember what I'd heard about Cinderella's story before I spoke again. "But… wasn't her mother dead?"

"True," the Doctor confirmed, nodding at me with a smile. "However, the early versions of the tale back on Earth have Cinderella receiving the gown when she was praying in front of a tree she'd planted in her mother's memory; the dress was brought to her by doves that were implied to have been sent by her mother's spirit to help her."

"And… you think that happened here?" I said uncertainly; even if we were in a world of where spells and fairies were reality, I was surprised to hear the Doctor being this accommodating about the idea of someone receiving a gown from the afterlife…

"We're in a world of magic, Bella," the Doctor reminded me. "It doesn't work back home- not most of the time, anyway; I've encountered a couple of exceptions to the rule- but that doesn't mean it couldn't be possible here."

"Magic's possible back home?" I asked in surprise.

"Under the right circumstances," the Doctor confirmed. "I've encountered Morgraine le Fay a couple of times- I'm actually Merlin in one world through a complicated chain of events this isn't the right time to talk about- and I once encountered a group who were trying to control a water elemental in New Orleans… like I said, it's complicated."

"Oh," I said, lost for anything else to say.

If the circumstances had been different, I would have asked for more on that story- the idea of the Doctor being _Merlin_ raised some fascinating possibilities that I would have liked to talk to him about- but a sudden yawn reminded me just how long I'd been up since this morning.

Considering that we could be called to talk with the queen and the princesses about the events that had brought us here at any moment, it would probably be a good idea for me to get some sleep before they came back (Now that I thought about it, I wasn't sure if the Doctor even _needed _to sleep). Giving a brief apology to the Doctor, I returned to my adjoining room, collapsed on the bed…

* * *

It seemed like it was only a few minutes later- although I later learned that it had been around three hours; I still felt tired, but I was at least slightly fresher- that I was being shaken awake by the Doctor and brought back down to the throne room. By the time I arrived, Queen Beatrice was sitting in her throne and the three princesses were gathered around her once again, the Doctor standing politely in front of them. Talia still looked somewhat edgy as she looked at the Doctor when the two of us were shown into the room- I wondered what stories the guards had been told to account for our presence- but she didn't look like she was going to attack him or anything like that, which should probably count as progress but just left me wondering what had prompted her to relax to that extent.

"I trust your rooms were satisfactory?" Queen Beatrice asked, looking between us with a slight smile.

"More than comfortable, your highness," the Doctor said, bowing slightly in gratitude. "Bella and I had a very interesting time reading some books on your country's history, and then I appreciated the opportunity to refresh my memory on magic."

"You do magic?" Snow and Talia asked simultaneously, Snow's tone eager while Talia's was more guarded (I tried to resist the urge to stare; hearing that the Doctor was known as Merlin wasn't the same as hearing he could actually _do _magic, considering all those stories he'd told me about aliens using technology to pose as gods).

"I dabble when the occasion requires it, and I am somewhat known on Bella's world for my skill, but that was a long time ago; I rarely use my talents in that area these days, so it seemed like a good opportunity to go over things," the Doctor explained, shrugging as he looked over at Snow. "Nothing wrong with magic itself, Snow; it's just not something I can use regularly."

"Draining on you, is it?" Snow asked with a smile.

"More accurate to say that I spent a long time learning how to get by without it and feel that it's cheating to do it otherwise," the Doctor explained. "Give me a foe who uses magic and I'll match them spell for spell if I can; I just don't use it when I'm not in that situation."

"Interesting philosophy," Snow said, looking thoughtfully at the Doctor for a moment before she shrugged and turned back to address the group. "Anyway, I've been talking with Arlorran and he's confirmed the rumours; there _is _something happening on the outskirts of Fairytown."

"Rumours?" I repeated in surprise.

"Our current relationship with Fairytown is… complicated," Danielle explained, looking at me with an awkward smile. "The ambassador from Fairytown was forced to exile himself when he broke the treaty to save Snow and Talia from an attack, and they haven't officially appointed his replacement yet…"

"Ah, red tape, eh?" the Doctor said, grinning at Danielle in sympathetic understanding before he looked at Snow. "Who's Arlorran?"

"He's a gnome back in Fairytown who works as the fairy queen's royal summoner," Snow explained. "He gave us some help in finding Danielle's husband a couple of years back, and we gave him wings in return; he's been a good friend, even if we don't see him that much."

"Uh… royal summoner?" I asked.

"He specialises in bringing people to the queen or sending them to other locations so long as he knows who he's calling for, the location he's sending them to, and they're not magically protected by anything," Snow explained. "Anyway, he was able to tell me that there's been some unusual disappearances in Fairytown recently; fairies going inexplicably missing, a few unusual occurrences in certain areas, that kind of thing…"

"The Duchess?" Talia asked.

"The Duchess?" I repeated in confusion. "Who's that?"

"A particularly powerful fairy," Talia explained as she looked over at me, a particularly malicious expression on her face at the topic. "She's capable of most standard fairy powers to an exceptional degree, but she's officially an outcast from Fairytown."

"Why's that?" the Doctor asked.

"She once attempted to kill the fairy queen and take her place," Talia explained. "Her ingenuity so impressed the king that, even after the attempt failed, he decided to claim her for his own rather than allow the queen to execute her; the queen agreed with the decision so long as she never had to see the Duchess again. The king took her as a servant, but when the Duchess made a vow to serve him after seeing one last sunrise, she dived into the earth before the sun rose; she remains free so long as she never sees the sun rise, and nobody wants to go down there if they have to."

"And they can't just exile her because then she'd be free of her oaths to both king and queen?" the Doctor asked.

"Fairies hold grudges like nobody's business," Talia said, smiling slightly as she looked at him.

"Unfortunately," Snow said, picking up the story once again, "it can't be the Duchess behind this; she's powerful enough, but she wouldn't want to do anything that would provoke others into going to look for her. The king and queen have to leave her alone because of their various deals with her, but if enough of their subjects decided to act against the Duchess on their own, neither are actually bound to protect her."

"Attacking humans is one thing, but attacking other fairies is something else?" the Doctor asked, shaking his head in exasperation. "It's the same all over; always a different standard when you're hurting another species…"

As though realising that he'd spoken out loud, he looked apologetically at the four local women before he shrugged and clapped his hands together. "Anyway, no time to get into debates like that now; what's the immediate priority?"

"Do you think that these disappearances have something to do with what brought you here?" Beatrice asked.

"Most likely," the Doctor said. "I've certainly investigated more obvious problems that started with smaller clues; if these disappearances are particularly out-of-the-ordinary, they make as apt an area to start our investigation as any."

"'Our' investigation?" Snow said, looking at the Doctor in a slightly teasing manner. "You're coming with us?"

"I believe your queen said I might be needed?" the Doctor replied, smiling over at the oldest woman present in a slightly teasing manner.

"True," Beatrice said, nodding briefly at the Doctor before she turned to face me. "And as for Miss Swan…"

"Where the Doctor goes, I go," I said firmly.

"You'd better let her," Snow said, looking at me for a moment before she smiled up at Beatrice. "Last time I saw someone that determined was when Danielle here was helping us plan how to rescue your son."

"I only ever take the best as my… students," the Doctor said, smiling gratefully at Snow as he placed an arm around me to give me a brief hug.

As much as I appreciated the sentiment, I suddenly found myself wondering if I was really ready for this.

Last year I'd been a relatively normal girl, and now I was travelling through time and space with an _alien _and was about to go on a mission to try and find something that was abducting fairies in the company of _Cinderella_, _Sleeping Beauty_, and _Snow White_…

My life was _really _weird…

* * *

AN 3: If anyone wants to know about the Doctor's past encounters with magic, the First Doctor learned magic in the novel "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (He was on a planet where humans _appeared _to have magic powers due to a complex nanite network, but the principle of the lessons he learned there could apply here), the Seventh Doctor faced a version of Morgraine from an alternate dimension in the TV show "Battlefield" (It was implied that he would become Merlin in his future in Morgraine's dimension, but the Eighth Doctor dealt with that issue in the short story "One Fateful Knight"), the Eighth Doctor faced a woman who believed she was the reincarnation of Morgraine in the novel "Wolfsbane" (It wasn't specified if she was correct or just delusional; the Fourth Doctor helped to deal with the after-effects of her actions, but he didn't face Morgraine himself), and the Eighth Doctor had to deal with a series of complicated attempts to control a water elemental in New Orleans in the novel "The City of the Dead".

AN 4: On a related topc, some novels have suggested that the Time Lords banished magic and unreality from the universe when they assumed power, with its greater prominence in the post-Time War universe a result of their absence, but I'm going to stick with the idea that it's still very complicated to use it in our reality save for specific circumstances, so Lorindar will remain a separate dimension altogether.


	4. Talks with a Princess

Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who", "Twilight", or the "Princesses" series; you know the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: More of a filler chapter covering the journey, but it does provide what I feel is some important information about the princesses, as well as some other details…

The Perils of Lorindar

After the shocks that I'd received regarding Lorindar's way of life since our arrival, I was actually relieved when I learned that we were travelling to Fairytown's borders in a straightforward horse and cart, the Doctor and I riding with Danielle while Snow and Talia followed in another carriage (Something to do with us being the guests of the queen while Snow and Talia were officially servants; appearances had to be maintained to prevent too many people realising who the other two were). The only surprising thing was that none of the carriages had any drivers; as far as I could tell, the horses were just walking in a certain direction and that was that. I'd asked about that, but Danielle had simply replied with a smile that her friends knew where they needed to go and left it at that; I'd wondered if this tied into how Cinderella had all those animal friends in the Disney movie, but when I couldn't think of a good way to bring that up that wouldn't sound embarrassing if I was wrong, I decided against asking about it.

The Doctor had briefly returned to the TARDIS before we departed, but when he walked out again as far as I could tell the only thing that he'd changed was that he was now wearing a ring with a large blue stone on it that seemed to be slightly too large for his finger; he occasionally had to reach over to slip it back on when the carriage passed over a particularly large bump in the road. I'd been trying to work out how to ask him about it- it seemed naggingly familiar, but I couldn't place where I'd seen it before- but fortunately someone else asked the question first.

"What is that?" Danielle asked, looking curiously at the Doctor after he'd adjusted it for the third time, the trip having so far progressed in a silence that was somehow both awkward and soothing.

"Basically, it's my wand," the Doctor explained, taking the ring off his finger and holding it out with a smile.

"Your 'wand'?" Danielle repeated.

"Well, it's my equivalent of Snow's mirrors, anyway," the Doctor clarified, as he put the ring back on. "The last time I used magic regularly, I used this ring as a focal point for my spells; considering that I learned how to use magic with this ring, I thought it best to go back to it for the current crisis."

"But… it doesn't fit…" I began, before I suddenly remembered where I'd seen the ring before now. "But you wore it when you were the old man, didn't you?"

"The 'old man'?" Danielle repeated, looking at me in confusion.

"That's… a long story, and it involves details of my life that this isn't quite the place to discuss," the Doctor said after exchanging a glance with me; this wasn't the time or the place to start discussing the Doctor's ability to regenerate with a society that may not be able to comprehend how it worked.

"Anyway," he said, sitting back in his chair with a smile as he closed his eyes. "I'm just going to take a few moments to think about those old lessons; feel free to talk amongst yourselves."

With that said, he laid his head back and fell silent, leaving Danielle and I to look uncertainly at him for a moment before I shrugged awkwardly.

"He… tends to think a lot," I said at last, stuck for a better explanation as I looked back at Danielle, keeping my voice as the two of us moved over to the other side of the carriage; it wasn't much of a gap, but if we were quiet it might be enough for the Doctor to get the silence he wanted. "He probably just wants to focus while he's thinking right now; the lessons he's talking about were a _long _time ago for him."

"How long?" Danielle asked.

"Uh… a few centuries," I answered; regeneration was something I couldn't discuss right now, but I could talk about his lifespan without making it too complicated.

"_Centuries_?" Danielle repeated, looking at the Doctor in surprise. "He's _that _old?"

"He's… very complicated," I answered, smiling as I looked at my friend.

"Is it anything to do with him saying that he _used _to be an old man?" Danielle asked, looking suddenly apprehensive as she studied the Doctor. "As in, he… took another body-"

"Hold on, he doesn't _possess _anyone!" I said, suddenly guessing what might be making Danielle so worried, my mind racing to find the best way to explain what really happened to the Doctor in a manner that she'd understand. "He just… changes his appearance when he's particularly ill or injured; it's tricky to explain, but he doesn't _steal _someone else's body to do it, he… just transforms into a healthy body if his current one can't go on."

"Oh," Danielle said, looking at the Doctor in contemplation for a moment, before she smiled and looked back at me. "Well, I don't think anyone would come up with something that complicated if they wanted to lie…"

"Thanks… I think," I said, stuck for anything else to say to that statement; considering how little I was able to tell her, I appreciated her faith…

God, I was trying to find a good way to explain _aliens _to _Cinderella_; my life was _amazing_!

"So…" Danielle asked, looking curiously at me. "If he's not human, but you're not with him because of a deal, and you're not his… lover, or anything like that… how did you end up travelling with him in the first place?"

"I was… having a bad day," I said, quickly going over the basic cover story I'd put together the previous night in the event of something like this happening while we were here; the fact that everyone already knew that there was something unusual about the Doctor and I gave me more leeway, but I wasn't sure how much anyone here would understand if I started talking about aliens. "My… lover… had left me, my closest friend wanted more from me than I was willing to give him, and I just wasn't sure what to do with my life…"

"And then he showed up?" Danielle asked, smiling in understanding as she indicated the Doctor.

"And then he showed up, saved me from my own mistakes, and invited me to travel with him for a time so that I could see what was out there," I said, nodding in agreement before I realised how that might have been interpreted. "We're not… we're only friends; he gave me a chance to get away from a life that only reminded me of how I hadn't measured up, but he's my teacher, if he's anything… intimate."

"And you've learned a lot from him?" Danielle asked.

"Well… some things, anyway," I said, shrugging awkwardly; 'teacher' wasn't exactly the best term for the Doctor's role in my life, when I thought about it, but it was the best I could think of. "Mostly he's been helping me stand on my own after… well, after everything I lost; part of the problem I had was that I'd become so caught up in my relationship that I just wasn't able to cope when it didn't work out…"

"Ah," Danielle said, smiling sympathetically at me. "And… he helped you learn how to move on?"

"Yeah…" I said, looking thoughtfully back at the Doctor, a smile slowly spreading across my face as I thought about everything I'd been through since I'd met him. "I realised when I was travelling with him that I actually didn't like what I'd been turning into during that relationship, so I've been working to move on from that… and I've learned that I can deal with more than I ever believed I could manage."

"You never know what you can do until you try," Danielle said, smiling at me in understanding. "I've been there myself; before I met Snow and Talia, I'd never imagined I'd even _have _to fight for anything, but when I did…"

"You went beyond anything you thought you were capable of?" I finished for her, smiling in recollection of my own recent meeting with the Doctor's original self;

After we exchanged a smile of wordless understanding, silence settled over the carriage once again, during which I stared contemplatively out of the windows while Danielle studied a book she'd brought along and the Doctor rested. I occasionally glanced behind to look at the following carriage containing Talia and Snow, but otherwise I alternated between studying the view outside and looking through another of the books that Danielle had packed, until the Doctor finally sat back up with a smile.

"Thank you," he said, grinning at the two of us as though picking up a conversation that had ended only a moment ago. "Always nice to get some time out."

"You're appreciating time out?" I said, smiling sceptically at him (I suddenly hoped that he hadn't been listening to what was being said when he had 'dozed off'; we'd been quiet, and I knew from experience that he could miss things if he was focusing on something else, but it just felt suddenly embarrassing to have discussed how I felt he'd changed my life when he was right next to me).

"When we're dealing with something this potentially complicated, yes," the Doctor confirmed, before he looked over at Danielle. "Talking of complicated situations, there's something I've been meaning to ask."

"Which is?" Danielle asked politely.

"Talia and Snow," the Doctor answered. "How did you meet them?"

"Talia was assigned to keep an eye on my chambers and interrupted Charlotte's attempt to kill me," Danielle said, clearly unconcerned about the question.

"Charlotte?" the Doctor repeated curiously.

"My sister," Danielle clarified.

"Your sister tried to kill you?" I said in surprise (I knew Cinderella's stepsisters were unkind to her, but attempted murder seemed a significant step up from straightforward dislike).

"She resented the fact that I married Armand," Danielle said, shaking her head at the memory. "Their mother gave Stacia and Charlotte everything growing up, and Charlotte _still _acted as though she'd been hard-done by when I let her and Stacia have my father's house after the wedding…"

"Some people are never satisfied with what they have," the Doctor said, looking sympathetically at Danielle, before he smiled and decided to change the subject. "So, you met Talia then, and Snow?"

"Shortly after," Danielle replied. "Talia took me to Snow's secret workshop in the palace basements while we were trying to find Armand after Charlotte escaped; I ended up accompanying them in their search, and… well, one thing led to another, and I've worked with them when I can ever since."

"How did they even end up here?" the Doctor asked. "I mean, Beatrice said that her visions brought them together, but…?"

"Oh, Snow was simple enough; after the political chaos that followed her mother's death had settled down with Lawrence being placed on the throne, Beatrice helped Snow escape and gave her a home here in Lorindar," Danielle explained. "Talia apparently made her way here on her own, hidden in a ship, but Beatrice's visions alerted her to Talia's arrival and Snow was sent to meet her."

"And once you moved in, you've worked with them when you can?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, obviously Beatrice's lessons take priority these days, but we still work together when something comes up," Danielle replied. "Just a couple of months ago, we managed to capture this renegade fairy called Rumpelstilzchen who'd been abducting children from various noble families-"

"Hold on; you captured _Rumplestiltskin_?" I repeated, not sure if I should be impressed at the accomplishment or amazed that it was real; he'd sounded powerful and mysterious enough in the tales, but we were talking about a _fairy tale _here…

"Talking of fairies," the Doctor interjected, neatly saving me from having to explain my recognition of the name as Danielle looked quizzically at me, "that brings up another thing I'd like to discuss; if we have to enter Fairytown to look into these disappearances any further, what would we have to deal with? I mean, even if the treaty forbids them from actually attacking us, I assume some fairies still bear a few grudges for what happened in the way?"

"Well, so long as we don't accept any deals from anyone, we should be all right; we just have to be careful not to draw attention to ourselves," Danielle explained. "The only problem is that the fairies will only allow nobles through their borders; Snow and I should be all right if we can use our titles and the guard hasn't changed, and we can maybe get you two through by declaring you our guests, but Talia…"

"Let me guess; subsequent exile aside, the fairies regard her as the villain of the piece in her story because they reason someone must have angered the fairy who cursed her in the first place?" the Doctor asked.

"The guard almost didn't let us in last time because the remnants of Talia's curse suggested that she had committed some crime against the fairies," Danielle explained. "We were able to negotiate terms that allowed him to let Talia in that time, but there's no way of knowing if he's still the guard…"

"And then there's the question of whether he'd let _us_ in as well?" I asked, indicating the Doctor and me, my mind flying to the worst-case scenario.

"Oh, no worries about that," the Doctor said, smiling over at Danielle. "I happen to be a lord back where I come from; if your authority isn't enough, I think mine might be able to get us through."

"You're a lord?" Danielle asked curiously. "Of where?"

"You wouldn't have heard of it," the Doctor said, smiling slightly at the princess as he looked reflectively out of the window, lost in his memories. "My family estate was the House of Lungbarrow, on the edge of a mountain range close to a magnificent river; I would have been declared the heir, but I preferred to go travelling rather than get stuck in the rut of being in charge."

"I can understand that," Danielle said, smiling reassuringly at him. "Sometimes I wish I could spend more time with Snow and Talia than worrying about Lorindar's trade agreements and potential alliances; I wouldn't even have to worry about it if it weren't for Beatrice's illness…"

"She's sick?" I asked in surprise; Beatrice had struck me as frail, but I'd assumed that she was just old rather than ill.

"She was stabbed by a magic knife wielded by an undine over a year ago," Danielle explained, her previously cheerful expression faltering at the new topic. "We were able to save her life, but the damage inflicted on her body was too serious; she's going to die within the year."

"Oh," I said in sympathy, my mind racing to find something else we could discuss. "Uh… what are undine?"

"They can also be known as mermaids," Danielle explained.

"Mermaids?" I repeated, looking at Danielle in surprise. "A _mermaid _stabbed your queen?"

"She was driven insane by a plan of her grandmother's; it's… complicated," Danielle explained. "Lirea was-"

"Lirea?" I repeated, quickly going over the name's sound in my mind before I looked over at the Doctor. "Is that-?"

"An anagram of 'Ariel'?" the Doctor finished for me, smiling in acknowledgement. "Correctamundo… and why do I keep using that word?"

"Ariel?" Danielle repeated, looking between us in confusion. "What's that about?"

"Just… something from back home," I said awkwardly, making a mental note to try and ask about that later; I suddenly wanted to know what could drive the _Little Mermaid _to try and commit murder after everything she'd done to become human and save the prince she loved…

I was almost grateful when my train of thought was interrupted by something exploding in front of us. As the horses let out what even my limited experience of horses clearly identified as a panicked whinny, the carriage was jolted backwards before Danielle leaned out of the window and seemed to be looking intently at something. As the carriage seemed to be steady and immobile once again, the Doctor opened the other door and leaned out, leaving me to quickly make a decision and join him at the door.

It wasn't hard to see what had attracted the Doctor's interest; just a short distance ahead of us was a large creature, slightly taller than a man, that looked like a massive lump of boils with a single large eye at its top and a thick orange claw sticking out of its right side like a hand.

"Oh no…" the Doctor said, staring at the creature before us in horror.

"You recognise it?" Danielle asked, looking curiously at the Doctor.

"Oh yes," the Doctor said grimly. "This is one of Omega's guards."

* * *

AN 2: Those familiar with the classic series will know who Omega is; those who aren't will learn more about him soon.


	5. Legend of Madness

Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who", "Twilight", or the "Princesses" series; you know the drill

Feedback: Much appreciated

The Perils of Lorindar

"Omega?" Danielle and I repeated simultaneously, looking at the Doctor in confusion.

"Time to explain that later," the Doctor said, his gaze still fixed on the creature even as he spoke. "Right now, I suggest a tactical withdrawal; we can discuss my history with this thing-"

Further explanation on the Doctor's part was cut short as the creature's orange claw glowed briefly and then something burst from the claw to strike the ground near us, causing an explosion that sent the horses reeling in panic. As the carriage was sent rolling backwards, I grabbed onto the nearest edge to try and steady myself, the Doctor getting to his feet with hands on either side of the carriage while Danielle seemed to concentrate for a moment. Before I had time to ask what we were going to do next, the horses spun around and ran as fast as they could away from the creature.

Looking back through the rear window, I saw that the guard-thing was following us, but it was moving at a slow rate, its bulky body only able to walk by shifting its lower parts in a manner that vaguely resembled feet. I almost relaxed- something moving at that pace couldn't be much of a threat- but then another blast struck the side of our carriage and the sudden shift as the cart fell made it clear that a wheel had been damaged. The Doctor grabbed me before I could fall out, and Danielle clearly had enough practise to retain her balance, but I was already fairly sure that we wouldn't be going any further in this cart without a new wheel.

As the three of us scrambled to get out of the cart, I saw Snow and Talia getting out of their cart and moving into position to try and confront the creature, their horses whinnying anxiously but otherwise apparently willing to stay put. As Talia assumed a combat stance, Snow muttered some words that I couldn't hear from my position, and suddenly the creature was surrounded by small things that gleamed in the sunlight and seemed to have flown away from Snow's neck. I only realised that they must be the mirrors that she had been wearing on her necklace when the mirrors created what I could only think of as a cage of light, which briefly surrounded the creature before emitting a brilliant glow that forced me to close my eyes against its brilliance.

When I felt the light in front of me fade, I opened my eyes once again, but wasn't entirely surprised to find that the creature was still there as well as our allies; things were rarely that simple when I was with the Doctor. Talia hurled a knife at the creature, but it just deflected the blade with its claw- it might walk slowly, but that claw was very quick- before it turned to 'face' Talia directly, the claw charging up once more before Danielle leapt forward, drawing the glass sword she'd been carrying since I first saw her as she lashed out.

As Danielle struck the creature with her glass sword, I wasn't sure if I should stare in shock or wince in sympathetic agony as the blade neatly sliced the creature before us in half, the top half coming apart like it was some kind of rotten vegetable. The creature let out a kind of warbling sound like nothing I had ever heard before- it didn't sound unpleasant; it was just weird- before both halves vanished, leaving only blackened grass that looked like something had been set on fire and burnt itself to nothing.

"Well," the Doctor said, breaking the stunned silence that had settled over us. "That was… efficient."

"Efficient?" Snow repeated, looking at Danielle's sword with a new sense of respect. "Try amazing; I never knew the sword could do _that_."

"Impressive bit of work, to say the least," the Doctor said, smiling as he looked at the blade in Danielle's hands before looking inquiringly at Danielle herself. "Is there anything it won't cut?"

"Me," Danielle replied, looking at the sword with an affectionate smile. "This was my mother's last gift to me, presented when I was under attack by a demon; it broke in half once when… an enemy… tried to use it against me, but otherwise we've yet to find anything that it can't penetrate."

"Really?" I said, looking at the sword with renewed respect.

I'd seen a lot in my time with the Doctor, but the idea that something made of glass could do that kind of damage…

"OK, nice as it was that we managed to stop that thing that quickly, you _do _realise that this doesn't make sense, right?" Talia said, staring critically at the burn-mark that was all that remained of our attacker. "We're still a day or so from Fairytown; even if the person behind the disappearances dispatched this thing, why would anyone post guards this far in advance?"

"Because he knew I was here," the Doctor said, smile fading as he looked grimly at the guard's remains. "He wants me to be worried."

"He knew?" Snow repeated, looking at the Doctor in confusion. "Hold on, how do you know who's behind this?"

"The guards are very distinctive," the Doctor explained, looking apologetically at the rest of our small group. "Princess Danielle, Princess Talia, Princess… Snow, I apologise for my earlier ignorance; the foe we face is Omega, one of the wisest and oldest of my people, and unfortunately also utterly, utterly insane."

"Your people?" Talia repeated, looking sharply at the Doctor. "He's like you?"

"Not exactly," the Doctor said, looking awkwardly at Talia. "Not only is Omega far older than me, but it could be argued that he's not exactly the same species as me any more; he's undergone significant changes since he was… well, trapped in another dimension, to put it bluntly."

"Another… dimension?" Talia said, initial anger forgotten in her confusion. "How… what do you mean?"

"Think of it as the equivalent of those fairy realms I've read about where time flows differently compared to how it flows here- one hour here equals a day there, that kind of thing- except that it's a few steps above that; the concept is very complicated and isn't immediately relevant, so long as you understand that he's stuck somewhere that isn't the world you know and can only be accessed under specific complicated circumstances," the Doctor explained, smiling briefly at Talia before he turned to address us all once again. "Anyway, to answer your questions, Omega was one of the three great founders of my race, many lifetimes ago, with the other two being Rassilon and the Other."

"The who?" Snow asked.

"The Other," the Doctor said again.

"The Other what?" I asked.

"No idea; he's never been referred to as anything else," the Doctor said, smiling apologetically at me before he continued. "As I was saying, Omega was the founder responsible for creating the power source that would give my people most of their abilities- Rassilon and the Other mainly drew up plans for the society itself and the rules that would define it, but Omega inspired most of the resources that we would use after harnessing that power- but in the process of trapping that power source, Omega… essentially, he fell through a portal and became trapped in a world of anti-matter."

"Anti… matter?" Snow asked, looking at the Doctor in confusion (I didn't blame her; I was vaguely familiar with the term, but all I knew for certain was that anti-matter would make things explode if it was released in our world). "What's that?"

"Well…" the Doctor said, waving one hand in an uncertain manner before he continued speaking, "in a nutshell, 'matter' is a generic term used to describe what everything around us is made of; are you with me so far?"

"Yes…" Snow said, nodding hesitantly at the Doctor.

"Good," the Doctor said, smiling at her before he continued. "Now, _anti_-matter is essentially the opposite of matter; I can't really explain how at this time, but its fundamental structure is so different from everything around us that, should they ever be in a position to co-exist, anti-matter could trigger a devastating explosion in our world. After Omega was trapped in the world of anti-matter, he was converted into an anti-matter state as he passed through the singularity at the heart of the portal, allowing him to learn how to shape the formerly featureless anti-matter world he found on the other side of it using nothing more than the force of his will."

"He… shaped a world from nothing?" Danielle asked, looking apprehensively at the Doctor. "By _himself_?"

"It was only possible due to the unique nature of his world and the amount of time he spent practising his control there; when I first ended up in that world it took everything I had just to create a door in the prison cell he'd trapped me in," the Doctor said, before he continued his explanation. "The creature that attacked us is one of Omega's guards, created from the raw stuff of matter, at a point when it is neither matter or anti-matter, allowing them to exist with ease in his world or our own to carry out his will."

"But… if he's created his own world, what is he doing here?" Talia asked.

"A prison where you can have anything you imagine is still fundamentally a prison," the Doctor answered grimly. "Unfortunately for Omega, since the world he'd created relied on him to maintain it, he couldn't ever leave; since everything around him only existed because Omega willed it to exist, he couldn't leave without abandoning control or the world would keep him trapped, but once he abandoned control he obviously also lost control of any potential means of departure he might have created and had to start all over."

"Catch-22 situation, huh?" I said with a smile.

"Catch what?" Talia asked.

"It's a phrase back home," I explained. "It basically refers to a situation where the most obvious way to get out of danger is impossible due to the circumstances the person finds themselves in; in this case, Omega can't escape without abandoning control, but once he abandons control he can't escape."

"Ah," Talia said, nodding thoughtfully for a moment before she smiled in understanding. "Interesting figure of speech."

"What about this 'Omega' person you were talking about?" Snow asked. "If he was stuck in this other world, how do you know about him?"

"Well, I grew up hearing stories of his accomplishments, but I learned that he still existed when he sent some of his guards to attack me during a period of my life where I was confined to a specific location and easier to trap than others of my people might have been," the Doctor explained. "Having transported me into his world, he attempted to escape by forcing me to take his place, but in the process I learned that the conditions in his world had already destroyed his body."

"His body was gone?" Snow asked. "So… he was a ghost?"

"Not quite, but essentially accurate," the Doctor replied. "He only existed any more because his will insisted that he exist, even without an actual body to sustain it, but even his power couldn't allow him to recreate his body so that it would exist outside his world."

"So… he existed because he wanted to exist?" I asked, looking at the Doctor in surprise. "That's…"

"Philosophically complicated, to say the least," the Doctor agreed, smiling at me before he continued. "Anyway, I was able to stop him on that occasion by tricking him into exposing his world to a sample of matter, which apparently destroyed him while returning me to my ship, but he eventually managed to reconstruct himself and make contact with someone in our world once again, using a unique form of energy from a rift in reality to temporarily shield his anti-matter form while he made contact with our world."

"Oh," I said, deciding that I would have to ask for more detail as the three princesses simply stared at the Doctor in silence. "So… what happened then?"

"Well," the Doctor began, "in a nutshell, he tried to create a new body for himself by using samples taken from me to turn himself into a copy of me, but his new form was inherently unstable. I was able to temporarily disperse him before he could trigger his own destruction, and while he was able to pull himself back together later, the transformation had damaged his mind so that he spent some time thinking he was _me _and investigating murders that he was committing before I showed up to stop him."

"And… what happened after that?" Talia asked.

"The last I saw of him, he was falling back into the anti-matter universe as his body fell apart once again," the Doctor explained. "He'd reached a point where he wanted to return to the world where he had full control and safety, so he probably returned to his original situation, but I never really checked; considering the way things turned out, I just… wanted to believe it was over, you know?"

As he awkwardly trailed off, the Doctor could only shrug awkwardly at the four of us, but I could understand his reasoning; it couldn't be easy to have to confront a figure from his planet's legends, even if he recognised the necessity of it.

"But… if he was trapped in this… anti-matter world… what is he doing in Lorindar?" Danielle asked. "And why would he be involved in the disappearances?"

"Well, I can only speculate as to how he got here or why he's doing this- like I said, the last time I met him he seemed to be content to stay in the anti-matter universe- but what he's after seems fairly straightforward," the Doctor explained. "He failed to escape using other methods in the past, so now he must be intending to use magic. "

"'Use' magic?" Snow repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Well, according to those books you gave me, fairies are naturally _made _of magic, correct?" the Doctor asked, Snow nodding in confirmation before the Doctor continued. "If Omega's here, his role in the disappearances makes sense; he must be trying to find some way to harness this world's magic to use for himself; his current power is great, but it's still not exactly _magic_, after all."

"Oh," I said, guessing what the Doctor was talking about and suddenly feeling very uncomfortable at the implications. "So… you think that he's capturing fairies so that he can… _take _their magic for himself to make a new body?"

"It's the most likely scenario, anyway," the Doctor said, looking over at the guard for a moment before he sighed. "Even if he thinks he knows what he's doing, magic introduces too many unknown variables; we _have _to find him before something goes wrong."

"And then what?" Talia asked.

"We'll… work that out when we get there," the Doctor said, even as something in his manner suggested that this situation wasn't going to be as simple as that.

Whatever Omega had done in the past, he was still the founder of one of the Doctor's civilisation, and therefore he was also a living Time Lord.

Even if it turned out that what Omega was trying to do was dangerous… would the Doctor be able to bring himself to stop Omega's plan if it would bring another Time Lord back?


End file.
